Hong Kong touts tourism in 9.5-minute commercial

[Hong Kong] The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) partnered with four global TV channels-Time Warner's CNN International, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel and Sony Corp.-owned AXN-to showcase the Chinese city's attractions with a nine-and-a-half-minute commercial, created by Interpublic Group of Cos.' Foote, Cone & Belding, that encapsulates the experiences of four groups of visitors to the Chinese territory. On Feb. 28, the full version ran on Discovery, National Geographic and AXN, and CNN aired a two-minute version. Two- and four-minute versions will run through the end of March in Asia, Europe and North America. National Geographic and AXN created interstitial vignettes about Hong Kong to support the HKTB film, and Discovery and National Geographic are hosting a contest in which viewers can win a trip to Hong Kong by answering questions from the film. "We positioned [the ad] as a program to the channels. It was not a hard sell, but [it was difficult to create] an engaging program which fits in with the editorial style of the different media channels," said Pooja Kapur, global business director, HKTB at FCB, Hong Kong, which also handled media planning.